top stories tonight from r t the syrian opposition says washington shouldn't label any group fighting the assad regime is a terrorist that says a massive blast rocks damascus but does washington really care that the opposition they support is endorsing terrorists more details coming up. north korea's rocket blast soffit a message of defiance from young says it sent a weather satellite into space but it's enough to unnerve the region. and president putin vows to cage the corrupt and says it's time for russians to seize the initiative in their countries develop.

their one is kevin zero in syria's main opposition coalition says the u.s. should reconsider his decision to are the leading rebel group to its terrorist list meanwhile several explosions struck outside the interior ministry building in damascus killing at least seven earlier the u.s. become the latest country to endorse the opposition alliance the latest smarties going to church you can. washington is trying to distance itself from extremists in syria they have designated the front carrousel can ization it's a sock to be one of the most aggressive and ruthless groups currently involved in the conflict washington decision to call them terrorists is seen as more of a symbolic move because many other fighters in syria possibly most of them welcome the efforts of those designated terrorists efforts that include suicide bombings and killing of prisoners as you just this wednesday. a bombing bill drop to the massacre to cause we're here at the interior ministry in damascus we don't know

whether it was. or another rebel group responsible for that in fact the leader of the very syrian opposition coalition which the u.s. has just formally recognized and is supported by came out and asked the u.s. to reconsider their decision on all those threats because they've been so helpful in the fight against assad here is what he said. the decision of considering one of the factions finding the regime as a terrorist organization should be reconsidered we don't man we love our country might differ with some groups in ideology and political views we confirmed that all the rifles of all the rebels are united. toppling criminal regime and then this opposition leader went on to talk about how important religion is in their fight he says and i quote martyrdom for the sake of allah has always been a main motive for people's freedom end of quote so that's the idea of freedom that

the leader of the syrian rebels pass in short the u.s. supports the syrian rebels and their aspirations for freedom while the rebels there are thinking terrorists but the decision to formally recognize the syrian opposition coalition will pave the way for more support for these rebels and they're asking for weapons for a lot of weapons including heavy artillery in this report i'm taking a closer look at the. syria. they call themselves martyrs and. all those you see around you of the fighters you see are living martyrs and the living martyr has already sacrificed a soul for this country the syrian rebels say they will stop at nothing to defeat us. some of them are so proud of their deeds that they post them on the web including the execution of prisoners. or having a child behead a man who was presumably an assault supporter atrocities are committed on all

fronts during syria's bloody civil war according to many accounts on the ground it's islamic groups that do most of the fighting on behalf of the rebels dr tao we come meet was a member of a jihadi spoken ization twenty five years ago he later became a vocal opponent of radical islam that you have this have no problem to behead people alive you deal with people like bin ladin and there are because of al qaida who have no his e.t.a. shin to use any form of whip around to to really. control any place. religious believes and ideology representatives of opposition fighters came together in turkey last friday to form a unified command with the support of the so-called friends of syria including the gulf states the u.s. the u.k. and friends one of the delegates at the meeting says two thirds of the islamist dominated anti assad groups have ties to the muslim brotherhood and salafist people here in washington don't seem to understand that if you don't like the government

in karo or if you do like the government in cairo i guess i should say then you will love the government the comes to power in damascus because you will see a sunni muslim islamised government a muslim brotherhood style government that is absolutely intolerant fundamentally hostile to the west washington has failed to officially denounce the many suicide bombings perpetrated by the rebels in syria. preferring to focus on the wrongs committed by the assad regime alone the u.s. is also ramping up the rhetoric about the possibility of the assad government using chemical weapons against civilians something that damascus says would be suicidal on the other hand many rebels are not averse to the idea of suicide in the name of what they call holy war militants have recently taken control of a toxic chemical plant in the country's second city of aleppo a video was uploaded to youtube showing them testing chemical weapons on rabbits we could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage for them although you will die like these two rabbits in its own words the assad government is

fighting terrorists that battle has claimed thousands of innocent lives the measures the syrian government was ordered to have been widely criticized but there's that crisis mean the world should keep their eyes shocked at who's actually fighting for power in syria now in washington i'm going to check out. more of this story talk to neil clark he's a contributor for britain's guardian newspaper has been following developments in syria closely is live on the line from london hi neal of the opposition has received a huge boost of course fire international recognition does this strengthen their position in solidify their cause thereby i guess putting pressure on assad to open dialogue all not i don't think it does actually because i think actually this is a boucher christmas a sad because you know if you think about all the way lines charter said that the opposition really the tools the western powers negotiate so this sort of proves it and president assad is able to say he's a sort of trying to go syria as an independent sovereign nation i think this will

actually vote to his support within the country and i think the basic problem that the rebels have got yes they've been recognized by the u.s. by grants by the basic problem however remains they don't have to deal with the six where it matters much within syria the syrian people don't respect for george it and don't support them back in september we had a rebel commander to vote for him only the fact that in seventy. said of the people with a side so that's the basic problem for them there's a lot of focus within the ranks of the al nusra front isn't there with a coalition united on the one military command there to think they can manage to keep their alleged radical elements such as the illness or from the blackness of the cause by the u.s. and the control well i don't think so because i think that violent regime change is what it's all about the u.s. it is hypocritical because yes they've taken a stance now against the al jazeera front which is commit this one of those he misses most appalling crimes in syria in the last few months however the f.s.a.

has also been committing some terrible crimes and the u.s. hasn't that has it at all so i think you know i think i think you know the name of the game is a violent regime change this is the only way that the western powers in the gulf states can bring about a change in damascus through violence. does not know what about the opposite what about the opposition groups requests for arms how likely is that the given the coalition's western backers are going to act upon that and come up with the goods well i think this is one of the reasons why they've been recognized that it makes it easier therefore to lift arms embargoes either arms are going to be very keen to be got show because that's what they want because but you know again we get back to the basic problem yes we can give more arms to them but the fact is unless they have higher levels of support in the public they're not going to win and of course the more violence that they have that they take part in that the more terrible atrocities they commit you know we have some things on you tube this week on beheading of prisoners by trial and we've had terrible atrocities take place the more those take place the more the syrian people are going to actually support assad. and the focus too on the keyboard of the turkey setting up the nato set of

missiles along its border with syria along with these latest developments as well do you think we'll see that no fly zone that everyone's been talking about in the region. sure i would have answered maybe just pay it we lost the line that's the thing with skype journalists and rights and their own but good to see the majority of that chat. now begin to focus on north korea today it successfully launched a rocket defying warnings then from its neighbors in the united states is the second attend this year after a failure in april pyongyang says it sent a weather satellite into orbit to washington seoul and tokyo claim instead its testing long range missile technology threaten fresh sanctions saying the north violated international law as it's banned from conducting ballistic missile test by the u.n. security council condemned the launch it's now considering what it calls an appropriate

response north korea expert professor to get frank says the pressure on p.r. has never yielded results before the. sanctions are of course an appropriate means to show your political dissatisfaction but in terms of being effective or almost useless in terms of north korea sanctions of it applied for decades north korea had enough time to find ways around those sanctions there are humanitarian concerns as to why is the trident so i think sanctions are more or less a symbolical function but they will have little actual effect so little for better is a rocket or a missile is definitely a question of interpretation from a political perspective because technically both devices would view saying is there's a difference is what the payload is you put the saddle on top it's a rocket you put a nuclear warhead on top it's a missile basically it's the same thing to go to the u.n. to see a resolution and there already is opposition and i'm no legal expert but i know that all three are definitely doesn't believe this resolution is

a law to prohibit. the launch is for peaceful purposes frankly speaking i do not believe that north korea intends an all out attack on its neighbors this program including nuclear program house purely defensive and insurance purposes is . no side's interest to heart war because if you go one korea careers will actually do so for a lot as long as the regime is stable of all three hundred sixty people so there's no immediate danger over the mail coming up president putin promises that no corrupt official politician will go unpunished later in the program we got a lot of reaction to the crackdown on the the crackdown the russian leader vowed jury in his first address since returning to the kremlin that pictures from a bit earlier on that's coming up soon also the u.k. reveals who's going to step up to revive its flagging the company but the rich could rest of these tonight the government's going to be targeting the forest

reporter that has been. looking at some docs you simply do not believe they come speak and goodness how they can wrong oh. it's an international sled dog race with those driving the dogs. coming from as far away as a strength in canada and the us they come to russia and everybody is so very friendly they welcomed me with open arms and the scenery is so beautiful it's very much like alaska and so i felt at home the first blood joke was brought here from australia now let's try and come to this remote russian village to take part in the race it's not surprising they love it this trail are amazing but even more amazing is the story of how racing first started here atoll it was in the top

sled dog racing who set the trail ablaze but a nun and for all phones who brought their idea to life. five years ago. built a dog kennel in the village kids from the local open age came around to take care of the dogs and one day they state their life might seem extreme to some the boys wake up at six to feed the dogs before school in the evening they spend up to three hours training baffle legged friends but smother purse cable also encourages her kids to become depth hands on the computer and internet the boys who regularly update their websites and they're in touch with busy ma the twenty four seven on the phone itself. but children are the most important thing my only interests not play any rule any more and regardless of whether parsky has huskies window race or not she hopes the competition will take place in the village next year. but called

these dogs and the children it really is not the winning but truly just the taking part that counts. cultures that say much about the taxpayers' money we're going to treat everybody people out here and. this is the stated goal. but again just this. morning news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing operation.

an immediate crackdown on corruption here in russia with tough pressure on all officials suspected of wrongdoings president putin focus strongly on how to solve problems at home in his first address since returning to the top job elect series more of what the russian leader outlined. several years ago when former president medvedev addressed russia's lawmakers this signaled major constitutional changes for the country with the presidential term being extended to six years this time

when president putin delivered his first annual address after returning to the kremlin for the third time it ran no major sensations nor political changes but at the same time this speech was even more significant as some have already said that many others before this time put in barely spoke about any foreign policy issues the main focus was on domestic problems in russia and there have been plenty according to russia's president in fact he started his speech by saying it is now or never as the world is going through a crisis russia must stand up to all these challenges and the first and the most correct way to do that is to invest into you. richard is that what's that clear as of today the percentage of healthy active able bodied people in russia aged between twenty to forty is one of the highest in the world twenty years time this economically active population could shrink by fifty percent less we do something

this trend will continue either we provide interesting jobs give opportunities to create business build families raise children be happy with just a few decades russia will become a poor country populated by an elderly generation incapable of preserving its own territory but probably the biggest problem dragging russia back for the past two decades has been corruption among the higher echelons of power that is because the largest probably the largest chunk of speech was dedicated to this burning issue clearest and probably the toughest message coming out from the russian president this time on the fight against corruption was that north regardless of how high she . can feel safe from punishment if he or she is found in embezzlement or any corrupt of actions in there go. mental bodies so tough was put in on the issue that sometimes it seemed that he was not speaking to the whole country or for the whole world to listen but he was addressing the people directly in this particular hole

those who gathered to listen to what he had to say russia's lawmakers people from the cultural spheres and military coup or david in order that we could you know when you can how can people trust an official or a politician who talks a lot about the good of russia to the same time trying to take his money out of the country i ask you to support the bill to limit the amount of foreign accounts and stocks that officials and politicians can have. the people because they. don't applaud yet maybe you would like everything i have to say in just one week's time limit put in we'll be holding an annual press conference for the world media and the eyes of the entire planet will again be on the russian president. let's see russia r.t. reporting from inside the kremlin. so that of martin macaulay's a russian expert is from the university of london is joining us live on the line

indeed from london good evening to you and president putin to focused on domestic issues as we heard there why do you think they were more important to address than the foreign policy questions he could also have touched on of course. he could have done that but the fact that he concentrated on corruption domestic issues means that those of the key questions facing russia the main challenges facing russia now is how to develop the economy is slowing. and corruption is a major problem it's not only a major problem in russia it's also a major problem in china with the new leader xi jinping his first speech after becoming secretary of the communist party it was devoted to corruption fighting corruption in the chinese communist party in government you suggest which are common with corruption is a common problem worldwide and it's growing russia's problem is according to the economist the number of bureaucrats has increased by sixty six percent over the last twenty years to some that had nine hundred thousand how do you monitor nine

hundred thousand officials it's an absolute enormous tassel martin that's the thing if we all we all recall that with the last president president medvedev this is top priority to crack down on corruption can i heard this before yet we keep hearing it's not very effective how is russia currently perceived by foreign investors has it improved at all in the last say five years or so. no unfortunately they've been going down in the ratings and it's more it's more difficult place to invest in and be successful than other countries. are looking to latin america africa and so on but russia finds it difficult to attract foreign direct investment what they're looking for is high technology investment that would come from the japanese or come to americans of germs and so on and are still coming in to the right quantities so therefore to shore that problem the rule of law has to be strengthened secure property rights have to be put in place and the level of bureaucratic corruption of

officials wanting bribes and so on has to be in fact cut down. now if you look at china. each city each province competes with one another and the party officials who succeed they are promoted as a mirror to credit system russia needs to introduce something like that where cities and provinces can compete with other because at present they form their own little groups and many states and cities and so on and the very very difficult to rule from moscow. putin also talked about russia's efforts to minimize how the global financial crisis affects the country what can russia do to help calm the worldwide downturn in return. well russia's president moscow is trying to set up a world financial center and this week some of the experts from moscow and some of the bankers british london discussing how this can be done so russia wants to

become a center for. finance financial investment financial center so that money pours into russia and therefore it can then be invested in the russian economy but step forward russia has a bunch of paper surplus and so on so this is a very happy position and. other countries of the european union america britain on a very very difficult position and russia perhaps could lend some money to the international monetary fund of the world bank and so on. but russia at present is a very very healthy position from a financial point of view as well but a good news in the world i guess market lots of a calling thanks ever so much for your thoughts expert as you are russian expert from university of london thank you. but the city exit giving a whole new meaning to launching a curfew to look at this is called the m seventy five a fragrance with curious bit of markets it was named after the girls used against israel's reason their friends if you go. by close. to live

at the time your russia was not quite big not yet why today's day comes with some rather amusing superstitions. twelve musto facts about twelve of the twelve all of the trouble. the british government's promising its economy can be steadily revived but it's pensioners and young mothers who are going to pay the price for it it seems as though it is probably boys who found out the cost of recovery will mean penny pinching from the poorest. the british have got it coming a raft of nips and tucks to tax them welfare that's going to see those with the least squeeze the most so while the treasury chief admits millionaires are about to get an average tax cut a very full one hundred thousand pounds per year from next april it's the less fortunate who bear the brunt of dealing with the u.k.'s ten billion pound welfare

bill but the cuts will come in disguise take for example the new so-called bedroom tax tenants in council housing will get less than benefits if their state funded accommodation is deemed too big for them some local authorities already say that could push up to four thousand people into homelessness especially as they're already being squeezed with an increased cost of living it's making christmas tough in many households the government insists it needs to fix public finances and that means cuts among various with too little to spare the chancellor has really made the main target of his austerity agenda the poorest family and is cutting the support received. both for the working poor three tax credits and so on and also for the for those unable to work it's not just bedrooms being taxed but motherhood as well last week the chancellor announced that maternity pay would be capped

meaning that pregnant women will be almost two hundred pounds worse off starting next year opposition labor m.p.'s have labelled it the mummy tax and an unprecedented raid on families and that's after those at the other end of the age scale were left reeling earlier this year from the granny tax leaving pensioners a further three hundred pounds out of pocket and a winter of worry ahead david cameron might have promised to be the best family friendly government ever but with friends like that who needs enemies. reporting for us one of our team in the u.k. waiting in the wings i can tell you in the studio next door people of all of these latest gets ready and raring to go to discuss the role of the international criminal courts not whether the body is fit for purpose crosstalk right after this break.

the sun rises over what seems like and last forest but here in the new directions cry for hundred kilometers north of light of all stalk as in much of the world it's disappearing at a catastrophic rate. lawyers both illegal and those finding ways to outsmart the system for filing down the forests of the more skewed region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis the world wildlife fund for nature makes regular trips to help local rangers do what little they can to stop the logging but it's not easy logger set up trucks making them hard to reach in an already rough terrain and have mastered ways to jump through legal loopholes this is a nature reserve we're only sanitary logging of disease trees is allowed according to law and not a single berry can be picked but loggers like this use their sanitary logging

permit to cut down absolutely healthy trees and sell the profitable timber over the border in china we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be easy the forest is enormous and our chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dreams but as soon as we find solid tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and get out silently in order not to scare the loggers off alexander some morning has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group of loggers easier to work when snow falls in autumn it's impossible to find human tracks and even transport tracks are hard to see after hours of driving we get sent in the right direction by word of mouth you can see that the ground is soft here which means that they have twelve the tractor trails are very fresh which in fact means that we need to be quite. in order to not scare them off as we get closer. this team says they're illegal but have no

documents now xander can now call the police to take over his work here is done he is overwhelmingly outnumbered there are too few rangers working in the promote the region and the w w f he says the government isn't doing enough to stop it i guess the government now as they started city for more whole forest legislation so assumes the pals and so on ribs and you'll forest court and according to the oath every for us that's the guys in waltham in the in the forest to the still exist so for us courts deal doesn't work just you. do it because no one tries to stop them in just five years the force will be gone they'll sell it all to china what will the people who live afterwards do if it's a question more and more people are aware of today climate change in the safety of our environment as a whole are being discussed around the world and perhaps it's those small steps that might be

a start to people living in harmony with nature. and . the need to. go and welcome to cross talk on peter lavelle ending international impunity this is the stated goal of the i.c.c. the international criminal court but is it delivering impartial justice to the world the court supporters say after a decade in existence it's too early to say its detractors claim the i.c.c. is racist and hypocritical as well as a tool of the great powers. to cross-talk the i.c.c. to.